AS Roma has fired its managing director Pietro Berardi a few days after the public prosecutor’s investigation into suspected accounting fraud became known.
The football club announced this in a short statement on Monday evening, but gave no reason for the CEO’s dismissal. The club wrote that it had “ended all ties” with Berardi “with immediate effect”.
At the beginning of April, the accounting fraud scandal in Italy spread to the two Roman clubs AS and Lazio and US Salernitana. Financial police investigated the clubs’ offices as part of investigations into player transfers between 2017 and 2021, when Roma were still listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Record champions Juventus Turin was penalized in January with the deduction of 15 points because the judges considered it proven that the club had embellished the club balance sheets with fictitious market values of its players. The record champion denies this. Because of the scandal, club boss Andrea Agnelli resigned after 13 years.
On Wednesday, a sports tribunal of Italy’s National Olympic Committee CONI will rule on Juve’s appeal. The Roma also denied any wrongdoing and assured the authorities of full cooperation.
